Hi Nodrog50, so now I should be saying....welcome to the family!!
After I recently received an email telling me I had a personal message from someone (you!) in relation to Harry Rundle, I'm back on this thread for the first time since January this year. I'll have to refresh my memory by going over some of the previous messages, so please bear with me!
I started my research on RootsChat over 6 months ago & have found out some amazing information. Like yourself not really knowing anything about Minnie, I didn't know about the existence of Alice Maud or her children with Harry Rundle, or even the letters written by Alice to the British Army trying to locate her husband, or how Harry appeared to try to hide his relationship with Minnie from Alice, & so on. These particular details came as quite a shock to me when I first discovered them! I'm curious as to how Alice found out about Harry's affair with Minnie. The poor woman must've been devastated, & it's no wonder that they really couldn't patch things up.
You mentioned that you have an Aunt Hazel & that she's still alive, would she be able to remember anything? Even small details will help.
Did Harry Rundle try to get in touch with any of his other children, or was your grandmother the only one? Perhaps he didn't succeed in making amends with any of his other children, after his relationship with Minnie Hales ended with her death in 1923?
I'm very curious as to how & when Harry Rundle & Minnie Hales met, though being a sensitive subject within the family, I can imagine it wasn't easy to talk about. Do you have any information about them/their relationship? As you've read from this very long thread, after Minnie died, Harry put 4 of the children into Middlemore Children's Home - Minnie, Ethel, Stanley & Joseph. The 2 eldest, Frederick & Elsie, were perhaps too old to go into the home & have ended up elsewhere (i.e., army & domestic service). I'm still trying to research what happened to those two as well. Minnie & Ethel are the 2 children who ended up emigrating to Canada, Stanley joined the British Army after leaving Middlemore, & Joseph (my maternal grandfather) ended up in Australia. Ethel had written letters to my mother & some of her siblings over many years to keep in touch, although I'm not sure if my mother still has them as this was most likely around 30 years ago. According to my mother, apparently Minnie didn't want to keep in touch with her or her siblings for unknown reasons.
If you're curious, this is the link to my maternal grandfather's (Joseph John Rundle) NAA (National Archives of Australia) records:
https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=6480713You can see the address on his attestation papers being the Fairbridge Farm School at Pinjarra, Western Australia & letters between the Australian Army & The Salvation Army Missing Persons Unit, trying to locate Joseph John Rundle for Ethel.
I'm sure as time goes on, there'll be more amazing details that can be uncovered!
I appreciate the photos of Harry Rundle & Alice Maud. Do you have any others of either them or other family members?
I'll be keeping in touch a little more regularly from now on!
Regards